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Petition protests beer monopoly

Derek Forward, who describes himself as &quot;just a private citizen,&quot; has started an online petition in hopes of forcing the Ontario government to break up The Beer Store near-monopoly.

By Dana FlavelleKerry GillespieToronto Star Reporters

Tues., July 8, 2008

Derek Forward, who describes himself as "just a private citizen," has started an online petition in hopes of forcing the Ontario government to break up The Beer Store near-monopoly.

"Everyone I know has long thought this thing should be changed," Forward said, adding that the now-foreign-owned chain enjoys a virtual monopoly over beer distribution in Ontario with very little government oversight.

In a bid to get things moving, the 49-year-old machinery broker from Burlington has set up an online petition asking people to support his call for change.

"I was going to do the petition the old-fashioned way. Collect signatures on paper. Round up a bunch of people and stand outside every beer store in Ontario for a weekend. Have a weekend protest. Supply them with a sign and then present it to the Ontario government when they resume sitting in September," he said in a telephone interview yesterday. He may still do that as well, he said. For now, though, he's testing the waters at ipetitions.com/petition/nobeerstore online.

His petition says: "We the people of Ontario demand that The Ontario Government immediately remove the monopoly currently enjoyed by The Beer Store.

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"The people of Ontario demand that the Ontario government allow beer to be sold and distributed through existing and regular grocery and food store channels."

Forward said he started the petition after reading a three-day series in the Toronto Star on the three largest brewers – Labatt, Molson and Sleeman – owning the store that sells $2.5 billion worth of beer a year in Ontario. The brewers, in turn, are owned by some of the largest foreign multinational brewers in the world: Belgium's InBevSA, the American Molson Coors Brewing and Sapporo of Japan.

In the series, which ended yesterday, small local brewers, bar and restaurant owners and corner-store operators called for sweeping changes in the way beer is sold in this province, including licensing other retailers to sell booze.

Many consumers, like Forward, have since jumped on the bandwagon, saying the 441-store chain has drifted too far from its original concept as a non-profit co-operative owned by all Ontario brewers.

Grace Griffiths, 77, of St. Catharines, said she has been writing to Premier Dalton McGuinty and others for the past year, calling for beer and wine sales in corner stores, "because I think our laws are so archaic and dumb."

Griffiths said she used to drive over the border to buy beer and wine, because it was cheaper in Niagara Falls, N.Y.

The Beer Store says higher taxes in Ontario are one of the reasons beer is more expensive here. But potential rivals, such as corner-store operators, say beer-store policies also help keep prices high at the expense of consumers.

Meanwhile, small craft brewers say it's tough to compete in a system owned by their largest competitors.

Forward, who grew up in Quebec, where beer is sold in grocery and convenience stores, said he's not looking to put The Beer Store out of business. He just wants it to compete in the free market.

"If they're as good as they say they are, there will still be lineups outside the store," Forward said.

Lisa MacLeod has long watched people living in Ottawa drive across the river to buy beer – cheaper and more conveniently – in Quebec corner stores.

So, the Progressive Conservative MPP for Nepean-Carleton said she knows the sky won't fall if Ontario looks into doing something similar.

"We're willing to explore it, but unfortunately, the way the McGuinty government has approached this, and many other things, is that they know best. Big Brother, or Mr. McGuinty and his cabinet, know best," MacLeod said.

The Liberal government has repeatedly said it has no intention of expanding sales beyond The Beer Store and the provincially owned LCBO.

MacLeod said selling beer in corner stores may turn out to be not a good idea, "but there is room for exploration."

Ontario's other opposition party, the New Democratic Party, has already decided selling beer in Ontario's 10,000 convenience stores is a bad idea.

"Ontarians are clear in their perspective that beer and wine belongs in professionally maintained outlets with responsible staff and responsible marketing," said NDP critic Peter Kormos (Niagara Centre). "Corner-store retailing of alcoholic beverages is simply a no go. It creates too much danger for the staff in those corner stores."

That's not an issue that will worry the Canadian Convenience Stores Association, which wants Ontario operators to be allowed to sell beer. The group points out that other provinces and states have embraced corner-store sales without problems.

Kormos, however, said convenience-store operators are looking in the wrong place for a solution to problems such as competition from major chains, even on Sunday, and now the prohibition on displaying tobacco products.

A better solution for corner-store owners would be increasing their portion of lottery and gaming proceeds, he said.

The real problem with beer sales is that small, local brewers aren't able to compete with the big names backed by marketing budgets of multinational corporations, Kormos said, and the government, through the LCBO, needs to fix that.

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